Fourier Analysis

Grant Heileman Fall 2013

Table of Contents
Problem Description.3 Waveform Analysis3 Excel Spreadsheet Analysis..........4 Results.......5 Discrepancies8-9 Conclusion...9

Problem Description
We were asked to determine the behavior and model the partial sum of the Fourier series of a given waveform. The waveform we were give had a time length of 72 but had no symmetry.

Waveform Analysis

It is easy to see that the waveform is neither even or odd and has a jump discontinuity at 37. I averaged the low and high point at this discontinuity. The waveform starts as concave down and continues this trend through the discontinuity. At about 45 it flips to concave up and changes back to concave down around 53 or 55.

Excel Spreadsheet Analysis

The spreadsheet was made on Excel to calculate each value which is row and column dependent. Theoretically, any waveform of symmetry neither, Even or Odd, can be used by just changing the f(t) values. The headline of the spreadsheet consists of our Period/time length values, f(time length values), and numbers 1 through 75 indicating the amount of iterations of the partial sum. Along the first several colomns we have the respective t and f(t) that corresponds to the waveform, angle in degrees and in radians, as well as the sums of a_n and a_b. Just to the right we have used Excel operators to calculate the partial sums ie: =$B7*COS($A7*E$5*$D$7)in which case our B7 refers to the corresponding f(t) value, A7 refers to the corresponding t value, E$5 refers to the n value in the heading, and $D$7 refers to the frequency. Row 80 starts the a_n values. These values start with a_0 and end with a_144. The operation =SUM(E7:E78)/432 is used to sum the values in the column corresponding to a_1 and is incremented respectively for each a_n. Next we see S(M). The operator =E$81*COS($D$7*E$5*$A84) is used to calculate the S(M) values. Here E$81 refers to the a_n value, the $D$7 refers to the frequency, E$5 corresponds to the value of n, and the $A84 corresponds to the value of a_n. This operator is used to sum the a_ns. The same operator is used for every value of S(M), where all that changes is the corresponding S(M) value. After 144 iterations have been completed along the column, the sum is calculated to give us each partial sum for every value of S(M), this sum includes a0 to simplify the sum for b_n and a_n. Finally b_n is calculated using a similar, that is =$B7*SIN($A7*E$5*$D$7). The only difference between this and the previous function is that COS has been changed for SIN. Next in the same way as before, V(M) is calculated for every respective value from 1-144 and for every time. Finally the b_ns and a_ns are summed together to achieve the final sum. The below equations are a mathematical representation of what was done in excel.

Results
a_n